I think if we talk about affordable tablets, there will be no ending story for that because this type of tablets are spreading out across the market like crazy.
And that’s good, meaning that we as tablet consumers, can have a wide range of tablet options from low to mid-end markets that have a great overall quality, despite having a cheap price tag, say Google Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD or Tegra Note.

Anyway, hi guys, welcome back to this site. Glad you’re still interested to visit this website i’ve been working on lately. Thanks!

Yes, as just mentioned above, in this blog post, i’m really interested to talk more about affordable tablets.

As a matter of fact, in the past few weeks, i’ve actually been showing you guys here some of the affordable tablets that i just really admire a lot, like Google Nexus 7, Tegra Note, most-recently HP Slate 7 Extreme or Kindle Fire HDX.

However, given that the title of this post reads “Kindle Fire 8.9 HD review”, then i will use this article to share to you my personal view or opinion about that Amazon’s tablet.

For your information, i’ve actually already review Kindle Fire HD in the previous post. But that’s the 7-inch version of that tablet or the cheaper model of this series.

So that’s why, i think it would be cruel if i don’t give a separate space for this flagship model on this website.

Besides, they both have some different specs, with Kindle Fire 8.9 HD getting the bigger and much better display than Kindle Fire 7 HD, although they both share the same internal hardware inside, like the same exact processor, RAM, GPU and many more.

Okay then, if you’re interested to learn more about this tablet, today, i’m about to share to you my personal opinion about Kindle Fire 8.9 HD.

However, i must remind you that, given that i don’t actually own that tablet by myself, then don’t expect this to be some in-depth review of the tablet.

This is more like a personal opinion review of what i’m seeing from this tablet based on my knowledge about the tablet that i’ve gathered from other sources like user reviews and video reviews on internet.

Well, without further ado, here you go, my personal opinion review of Kindle Fire 8.9 HD. But first, let me give you the brief introduction of this tablet.

Introduction

Ever since Amazon released its own homemade tablet, the original Kindle Fire, there were not many people that were aware of its presence in tablet market given that iPad was still the absolute choice for a great quality tablet back then.

However, things changed quite a lot when the holiday season around 3 or 4 years ago arrived.

Suddenly, Kindle Fire became a huge hit in Amazon’s website, which was not really surprising given that Amazon promoted its tablet aggressively on many of the ads throughout its website.

Around 5 million units of Kindle Fire tablets managed to be shipped by Amazon around that time frame and it made this tablet the best selling item on Amazon electronic section.

And this was such a huge achievement not only for Amazon, but also for all Android tablet manufacturers, including Google because, again, back in 3-4 years ago, iPad was still the king in tablet market.

As a result, Kindle Fire managed to grab the biggest share in Android tablet market beating up Samsung GALAXY Tab and other Android tablets by miles.

And that moment was the sign when Android tablets could finally rise from the dead in the global tablet market, meaning that iPad finally found its true challenger in the market.

What made me really impressed with Kindle Fire was because thanks to its success, this tablet finally managed to open up the 7-inch tablet market and make it really popular in the global tablet market, the market that used to be really small niche market where tech world didn’t take it seriously just like 10-inch tablet market.

After the success of the first-gen Kindle Fire, Amazon didn’t stop there.

A few months later after Google announced Google Nexus 7 tablet, Amazon outed the second-gen of its homemade tablet called Kindle Fire HD.

However, unlike in the past, this time, Amazon releases 2 different models of Kindle Fire HD series.

And they are Kindle Fire 7 HD and Kindle Fire 8.9 HD, which i’m about to talk in this review.

What separates these 2 tablets is no other than their screens.

Being the flagship model of this series, then without a doubt Kindle Fire 8.9 HD has the higher 8.9-inch full HD resolution display than the cheaper version Kindle Fire 7 HD.

Interestingly, these 2 tablets share the similarity in design and also internal hardware specs.

Design

Design is what i love from Kindle Fire 8.9 HD. Compared to the first-gen Kindle Fire, i think Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is a huge departure from that predecessor.

Besides having so much better hardware inside, Kindle Fire 8.9 HD also brings many improvements in the design sector.

It now looks more elegant and more premium than the previous model, although not as premium as the aluminum-plated iPad of course.

But still, the design of Kindle Fire 8.9 HD looks more appealing to users.

The front side looks really solid.

The bezels, the rounded shape of each corner, the color and pretty much everything from this tablet is just perfect in its class.

I even dare to say that Kindle Fire 8.9 HD has a much better design than Samsung GALAXY Tab 2, which i think looks kind of ugly with its chubby rounded corners and huge bezels.

Thankfully, Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is not like that.

This Amazon’s tablet just looks so elegant and i also like how the dark black bezels of this tablet can blend perfectly with the whole dark screen when it’s being turned off.

And this kind of reminds me with the blending dark bezels on Sony Xperia S Tablet, which also looks elegant and premium.

Being a platform that users are gonna use specifically to enjoy all the media and entertainment contents in Amazon ecosystem means that Kindle Fire 8.9 HD must definitely have the best possible hardware around the market in order to accommodate that purpose perfectly.

And Amazon must make no compromise on the hardware sector of this tablet, which could ruin the whole experience of users when using this tablet.

Thankfully, Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is equipped with some great specs on it.

It has a 8.9-inch full HD 1920x1200 pixel display, which is just perfect for watching movies or playing games.

Kindle Fire 8.9 HD also comes with great internal hardware inside, like a dual-core TI OMAP Cortex-A9 clocked at 1.5GHz per core, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX544 MP4, meaning that it can deliver an outstanding performance to the tablet.

Besides those great high-end specs above, some basic things like WI-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and many more can also be found on this tablet.

But since we know that Amazon already provides you either 32 or 64GB storage options, then the storage capacity issue has been tackled perfectly on this tablet.

Screen

As mentioned above, one thing that separates the Kindle Fire 8.9 HD and Kindle Fire 7 HD is the display.

Being the flagship model of this Kindle Fire HD series, then Kindle Fire 8.9 HD will have the higher quality specs than Kindle Fire 7 HD.

However, that’s acceptable given that Kindle Fire 7 HD only cost $199 (which last i heard, has been already slashed by Amazon to only $139 for the basic 8GB model).

On the other hand, the display of Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is just perfect for watching movies, playing games, browsing the net or reading books.

It is an 8.9-inch display with the resolution of 1920x1200 pixels and pixel density of -254 ppi.

And this means, the screen will look insanely sharp and crisp in front of naked eyes.

Playing games will be so amazing, thanks to its big ideal 8.9-inch screen. Watching HD movies will be satisfying, thanks to its sharp high-res display.

Reading books or browsing the web will be such a pleasing experience because all the words or picture will look insanely sharp and clear.

The whole experience of using this tablet will totally be enhanced.

And this is a huge plus of this tablet.

The good news is, i believe this model now is sold with a much cheaper price point than the one when it firstly launched a year ago.

So you’ll get a full HD display tablet at great low price.

User Interface

The main purpose why Amazon sells Kindle Fire tablet is to give users a great and reliable platform that they can use to enjoy all the contents in Amazon ecosystem, like books, movies, tv series, music, magazines or games.

And this is how Amazon generates profits, which is by selling contents through Hulu, Netflix, Amazon app store or other Amazon’s content stores.

This is also the main reason why Kindle Fire 8.9 HD has a really simple and straightforward user interface, unlike other Android tablets out there that have the full-fledged version Android OS with all of its features.

So on Kindle Fire 8.9 HD, you just can’t customize the look of this tablet, you can’t add widgets on the homescreen, you can’t use live wallpaper.

Long story short, many of the features of regular Android OS have been stripped off from this tablet.

Despite using Android OS just, the user interface of Amazon Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is so much simpler than any other Android tablets out there.

On the homescreen, you’ll only be shown with the huge icons of apps or contents on your tablet in a simple glider-view.

On top of the screen, you’ll see some of straightforward tabs like movies, music, books, etc, where you’ll be able to search all the contents of each category from Amazon ecosystem.

However, for many users of Kindle Fire 8.9 HD, this simple straightforward UI doesn’t really bother them because the main reason why they want to buy this tablet in the first place is no other than to enjoy the media and entertainment contents from Amazon easily and perfectly.

So thanks to that simple user interface, users can easily use the tablet and find the contents they want to enjoy without facing some complicated learning curve.

So if you’re looking for a simple but great media entertainment tablet and you’re totally fine being chained to all Amazon ecosystem with no access to Google Play Store, then Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is definitely a great choice for you.

However, if you want to get the other alternatives for this tablet, you can pick up either iPad mini or Google Nexus 7.

Performance

When it comes to performance, Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is no doubt really great on that sector.

It may not have the same powerful performance like Google Nexus 7 nor iPad mini, but it’s still more than capable to play all the contents on Amazon ecosystem perfectly and smoothly.

And thanks to the more simplified-version of Android OS, then the whole experience and performance of this tablet will be fast and smooth.

Things like watching HD movies, playing heavy games, reading books, listening to music, browsing the web or reading magazines, all can be enjoyed in buttery smooth performance without any lag whatsoever.

In fact, for your information, the PowerVR SGX 544 GPU found on this tablet is actually the same one found on older iPhone 5, which is one of the best gaming smartphones around the market.

So having known that, then the gaming performance of Kindle Fire 8.9 HD will definitely be as amazing as iPhone 5, although not better than iPhone 5.

So if you love playing some heavy graphically demanding games like Asphalt 7: Heat, Dead Trigger 1, ShadowGun, PES 2012, FIFA 2013, Gangstar Rio or GTA Vice City, then Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is no doubt capable to run these games perfectly and most importantly, in full graphics.

However, for some other latest games like Asphalt 8: Airborne, Dead Trigger 2 or GTA San Andreas, Kindle Fire 8.9 HD may struggle to play them in full graphics.

But the good thing is, you can always set their graphics setting to medium or low in order to be able to play them in buttery smooth performance.

Anyway guys, if you want to know more about the gaming performance of Kindle Fire 8.9 HD, including what games that will run on this tablet, check out my YouTube video playlist or Pinterest page. :)

Battery Life

As i always mentioned over and over again in my previous reviews, Kindle Fire tablet has an outstanding battery life.

Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is no different, this tablet still inherits the same strong battery life just like the predecessor.

In fact, thanks to the improvements and tweaks made by Amazon on the software (Fire OS) and hardware of this tablet, i believe the battery life of Kindle Fire 8.9 HD will be much even powerful than predecessor.

So if you love watching movies or playing games in marathon, i mean, like watching HD movies in the row or playing some adventure game in many many hours without stopping, it’s believed that the battery life of this tablet could last around 8 to 10 hours in that heavy usage.

However, if you intend to use this tablet in mixed tasks combined, like playing games for a while, then browsing the web, then reading books, then watching movies, then listening to music, you can expect this tablet to last around 1 solid full day in one full charge.

And this is already great for a tablet that can deliver an outstanding fast performance to the full HD 1920x1200 pixel display.

User Opinions

For me personally, overall, i’m really impressed with all the things that being offered from this tablet.

It has a full HD display, a fluid experience, a fast and smooth performance, a powerful gaming capability, a strong battery life and the most importantly, a great price.

However, something that keeps bothering me from this tablet is definitely its simple user interface.

It’s not really appealing for many users, especially tech geeks, who usually want to have a full-fledged version of Android OS with all of its features.

The fact that Kindle Fire 8.9 HD also doesn’t have the access to Google Play Store is also annoying because that app store is really important for some power users out there.

But then again, we must accept that the reason why Amazon releases this Kindle Fire tablet is just to give users a simple platform that they can use to just enjoy media and entertainment contents from Amazon right away on the tablet.

So we can’t complaint with the decrease of functionality from this tablet.

Overall, Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is definitely a great quality tablet and will be suitable for users who only want a simple tablet with straightforward user interface and easy access to Amazon’s huge content catalog.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, i think Kindle Fire 8.9 HD is still a great deal on tablet market to date.

It has a great and sharp full HD display, powerful performance, smooth experience and long lasting battery life.

The good news is, given that Kindle Fire HDX is the latest-gen tablet from this series, then the price of older-model Kindle Fire 8.9 HD has been slashed by Amazon.

It used to be priced around $380 when it made its first debut a year ago. So i believe now the price of this model is just around $230 for the basic 32GB model (or 16GB model? sorry if i’m not mistaken).

However, if you want other alternatives, you can check out Google Nexus 7 (2013 edition) or Kindle Fire 7 HDX, which both cost only $229 for the basic 16GB model.

It has the same quality 1920x1200 pixel display just like Kindle Fire 8.9 HD, although in smaller 7-inch screen.

But the great thing of buying these 2 tablets is that, Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire 7 HDX both are packing some monster specs on them, which are just way better and more powerful than the hardware specs of Kindle Fire 8.9 HD.

So even though they come with a smaller screen, their hardware specs are still more powerful though.

Besides, they both probably have the same price just like Kindle Fire 8.9 HD right now.